The GNU Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for the Unix kernel.
It is a collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel
to implement file systems, network protocols, file access control, and
other features that are implemented by the Unix kernel or similar
kernels (such as Linux).
More detailed.

What is the mission of the GNU Hurd project?

Our mission is to create a general-purpose kernel suitable
for the GNU operating system, which is viable for everyday use,
and gives users and programs as much control over their
computing environment as possible.
Our mission explained.

These new releases bundle bug fixes and enhancements done since the
last releases more than a decade ago; really too many (both years and
improvements) to list them individually, but please see the NEWS files.
Many thanks to all the people who are helping!

If you want to give the Hurd a try, you may easily do so with Debian
GNU/Hurd.

The GNU Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for the Unix kernel. It is a
collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel to implement file
systems, network protocols, file access control, and other features that are
implemented by the Unix kernel or similar kernels (such as Linux). More
detailed.

GNU Mach is the microkernel upon which a GNU Hurd system is based. It
provides an Inter Process Communication (IPC) mechanism that the Hurd uses to
define interfaces for implementing in a distributed multi-server fashion the
services a traditional operating system kernel provides. More
detailed.

It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the
release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013.
This is a snapshot of Debian "sid" at the time of the Debian
"wheezy" release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an
official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release.

The installation ISO images can be downloaded from
Debian Ports
in the usual three Debian flavors: NETINST, CD, DVD. Besides the friendly
Debian installer, a pre-installed disk image is also available, making it even easier to try
Debian GNU/Hurd.

Debian GNU/Hurd is currently available for the i386 architecture with more
than 10.000 software packages available (more than 75% of the Debian archive, and more
to come!).

Due to the very small number of developers,
our progress of the project has not been as fast as other successful
operating systems, but we believe to have reached a very decent state, even with our limited resources.

We would like to thank all the people who have worked on GNU/Hurd over the past
decades. There were not many people at any given time (and still not many people
today, please join!), but in the end a lot of people have
contributed one way or another. Thanks everybody!

The GNU Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for the Unix kernel. It is a
collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel to implement file
systems, network protocols, file access control, and other features that are
implemented by the Unix kernel or similar kernels (such as Linux). More
detailed.

GNU Mach is the microkernel upon which a GNU Hurd system is based. It
provides an Inter Process Communication (IPC) mechanism that the Hurd uses to
define interfaces for implementing in a distributed multi-server fashion the
services a traditional operating system kernel provides. More
detailed.

In November 2012, we finished the libthreads (cthreads) to libpthread (POSIX
Threads)
conversion.
Converting the Hurd libraries to the pthread interfaces allows
linking them together with other libraries that use this standard threading
interface themselves. This project
once was
begun by Vicente Hernando Ara, and later continued by Barry deFreese, Thomas
DiModica, Thomas Schwinge, Samuel Thibault, Pino Toscano, and now brought to
completion by Richard Braun, who could not be scared by having to resolve the
last remaining tricky issues before the transition could be completed.

Cyril Roelandt shared a patch
series
to fix double mutex unlocking problems. He found these using a simple script
for Coccinelle, which is a static code analysis
tool. We hope to see more such changes in the
future, and we're always interested in hearing people who have experience with
similar tools, for example to resolve other locking issues.

Thomas Schwinge together with Richard Braun and Samuel Thibault debugged and
fixed a
deadlock related to signal delivery, resulting from a regression due to earlier
changes.

Thomas Schwinge improved the hardware compatibility of the Hurd by identifying
and
backporting
some changes contained in Linux 2.0.40, which prevents data corruption due to a
miscalculation of the size of medium-sized disks reporting 15 heads instead of
16.
This fix was part of an effort to get Hurd running using a solid-state
disk.
Samuel Thibault improved network card
detection
on busses other than 0 and 2.

So if you want to test if your favorite packages work on the Hurd and
contribute towards making the full GNU system usable for a wider range
of people, please get in contact -- and maybe already
grab the source code.

The GNU Hurd is the GNU project's replacement for the Unix kernel. It is a
collection of servers that run on the Mach microkernel to implement file
systems, network protocols, file access control, and other features that are
implemented by the Unix kernel or similar kernels (such as Linux). More
detailed.

GNU Mach is the microkernel upon which a GNU Hurd system is based. It
provides an Inter Process Communication (IPC) mechanism that the Hurd uses to
define interfaces for implementing in a distributed multi-server fashion the
services a traditional operating system kernel provides. More
detailed.

Getting Help

Before asking a question on a mailing list or on IRC, first, please try to
answer your own question using a search engine and reading the introductory
information. If you have done this and you cannot find the answer to your
question, feel free to ask on a mailing list or on IRC.

Running the Hurd

The most functional distribution of the Hurd is the one provided by Debian.
Find more information about it at the
Debian GNU/Hurd website.

Along with it there are various ways to run a GNU/Hurd system.
Three of them are

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any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant
Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license
is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation
License.